Yara and Mosaic shocked markets with a settlement of $1,625/t c.fr for April, up $490/t on March, and the highest ever price recorded at Tampa, as the removal of Russian and Ukrainian ammonia supply impacted global prices, and Baltic rates soared to $1,500/t. However, April saw some of the global dislocations caused by the Russian conflict begin to ease, while the high prices saw buyers in the US delay purchases, leading to the Tampa price falling back $200/t for May loadings.
Gidara Energy has agreed with the Port of Rotterdam to develop a new waste to methanol facility in the Netherlands: Advanced Methanol Rotterdam (AMR). Gidara will duplicate its Advanced Methanol Amsterdam project as a template for AMR, using Gidara’s patented high temperature Winkler (HTW® ) technology, which converts nonrecyclable waste to renewable fuels. This technology has been used commercially in four other waste to syngas production facilities. AMR will convert around 180,000 t/a of non-recyclable waste into 90,000 t/a of methanol, while capturing all waste streams for use; CO2 will be captured and led to local greenhouses; bottom product residue will be used for cement production; and other streams like ammonia and salts will be sold and put to use as feed stock for other industries and road salt respectively, creating a fully circular concept. The facility is scheduled to start detail engineering and construction in the first half of 2023, when a permit is received, and start production of renewable methanol in 2025.
India’s new batch of urea plants are coming on-stream or nearing completion, but can the country regain the self-sufficiency in urea production that it enjoyed in the 1990s?
Spot ammonia prices made steep losses in west of Suez regions following the $200/t drop in the Tampa May contract price in late April, as supply and demand start to rebalance two months after the removal of Black Sea ammonia exports from the market. Yara has settled the Tampa contract price for May with Mosaic at $1,425/t c.fr, a $200/t drop from April.
Leaks in the high-pressure synthesis section of a urea plant may lead to catastrophic consequences. In 2017, building on an incident database set up by UreaKnowHow.com, AmmoniaKnowHow.com and UreaKnowHow.com introduced FIORDA, the Fertilizer Industry Operational Risk Database, a global open source risk register for ammonia and urea plants.
Casale has acquired Hong Kong-based Green Granulation Ltd (GGL), and its proprietary technologies for the design and construction of urea and calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN) granulation systems. Casale says that the takeover is part of a broader strategy aimed at strengthening its leading position in the nitrogen market by leveraging the widest integrated portfolio of efficient technologies, enabling the company to offer a ‘one stop shop’ for the entire production cycle of nitrogen-based fertilizers, from raw materials to final products. GGL’s addition to the Casale group includes the Cold Recycle Granulation process, an advanced fluidised bed technology designed to accept a lower concentration of urea feed melt (ca 96% urea and biuret), as well as a proprietary design for both granulator and scrubber, a team of experts and qualified technicians, and considerable experience in several industrial references. The CRG design has a horizontal layout, leading to lower structural costs and higher efficiency, as well as lower total investment costs and power consumption, lower power consumption and simplified operation, and higher operational flexibility in urea and CAN granulation.
CRU’s Nitrogen + Syngas conference returned to a face to face meeting for the first time in two years at the end of March this year.
For some years the fastest growing sector of the methanol market was Chinese olefins production. However, with growth there flattening out, it is traditional chemical uses which are taking over again as drivers of demand growth, with, longer term, a major prospect from fuel and energy applications.
Late February saw the diplomatic crisis between Russia and Ukraine abruptly devolve into all-out war, on a scale not seen in Europe since the collapse of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s – some would argue not since the end of the Second World War. At time of writing, the conflict is still barely two weeks old, but has already produced an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe, and a refugee crisis of massive proportions. But over the medium and longer term, together with the international sanctions that have swiftly followed, it also has the power to deliver an economic shock to commodities markets in particular and the world economy in general that may be as bad if not worse than the crash of 2008-9.
This case study refers to the carbamate condensers and separators in the urea recirculation and hydrolyser desorber section of a urea plant, operating under normal operation at 0.3 MPa and 75°C. After 48,000 hours of operation, during the turnaround of the urea plant, the diaphragm type instruments were sent to the original equipment manufacturer for inspection and refurbishment. In addition to damage of the diaphragm, crevice corrosion was found in the gasket area (see picture) posing a health and safety risk .